Obama declared a major disaster in West Virginia Saturday night following historic flash flooding in the state that has left at least 23 dead and some 32,000 without power, according to the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s latest count.

As a kid, fire drills taught you fire safety. And you haven’t been killed by a fire. Your parents trained similarly for nuclear war. With 248 mass shootings in US in the 238 days of 2015, it’s time we began treating those the same way. This is how.

Doesn't matter if your regional disaster is a flood, tornado, hurricane, snowpocalypse, or earthquake, when the next one strikes you're going to need to be ready for it. Here's what you should have on hand to keep you and yours safe for at least three days.

In 1984, a young boy named Andy Smith came up with a clever scheme to get his room cleaned with minimal effort: he would convince President Ronald Reagan to have his room declared a federal disaster area and then clean his room with the resulting funds. But the president didn't exactly send folks in biohazard suits to…

For years, the internet has swirled with rumors about a large number of black plastic containers stored along a stretch of interstate near Atlanta. Conspiracy theorists dubbed the black containers coffins, and hypothesized that they were being stored for a planned or foreseen event that would cause the deaths of…

This seems lifted from The Onion but it's not. According to the WSJ, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate uses a 'Waffle House Index' to help him determine how destructive a hurricane has been to an area. If a Waffle House is closed, you're probably screwed.

The ever so timely FEMA just released an app for Android phones that'll get you prepared for that bitch of an Irene. The app will give you checklists to build an emergency kit, maps of disaster recovery centers, information how to stay safe and more. You're going to need this this weekend (if you live on the east…

With LulzSec out of the picture, bros-in-arms Anonymous has taken up the cause with hacks of their own. One being the release of an "anti-cyberterrorism" training file, allegedly published by FEMA. The irony is not lost on us.

The next time you're trapped under a pile of rubble that used to be a building, wedged into a spider hole, don't expect your local USAR team to pop their head in to find you. Instead, they'll send in this.

We often talk about fictional apocalypses here at io9, but what if the collapse of civilization actually happens in your lifetime? Here are some things you can start doing right now to make sure you're ready to ride it out.

This video shows how FEMA no only deals with credible threats as hurricanes and terrorist attacks, but also with credible threats like alien attacks and UFO crashes: They have an entire chapter dedicated to this topic in their firefighters manual. Great. As if it wasn't enough with the UK government revealing airplane…

No, I'm not kidding: A recent ABC newscast focuses on how a commonly-used firefighters' manual from FEMA has an entire chapter devoted to UFO preparedness. Hey, it's a good idea to be ready for anything, right? If aliens crash-landed, there wouldn't just be fires — there'd be mass panic. First responders need to have…

Knowing that the government can keep us safe against evil dildos and penis pumpers, I don't really give much importance to the fact that a guy got into the U.S. Homeland Security Department phone system to make more than 400 calls to his buddies in friendly countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.…